An administrative investigation into sexual harassment allegations against Adelanto City Manager Gabriel Elliott has concluded. The City Council will discuss Elliott’s possible termination during a closed-session meeting on Tuesday.

Administrative investigations into alleged sexual harassment by Adelanto Mayor Rich Kerr and City Manager Gabriel Elliott have concluded, a spokesman for the city said.

“It’s my understanding that the investigations have been completed,” city spokesman Michael Stevens said in an email Monday.

The City Council began discussing potential disciplinary action against Elliot, including possible termination, in a closed session meeting Feb. 14. The talks continue at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Elliott, who was placed on administrative leave just before Christmas, stands accused of sexual harassment by a former intern and two former employees. His former secretary accuses him of trying to kiss her in his office, and another former employee accuses Elliott of making her feel uncomfortable by taking her to his house for a tour following a state of the city event in Rancho Cucamonga, then subsequently asking her out on dates.

The former intern alleges Elliott, after treating her to lunch, continued asking her to lunch again and again before she was fired.

It was unclear when the City Council will discuss potential action against Kerr, accused by a former intern of creating an “uncomfortable, intimidating, and embarrassing” work environment by telling city employees he was trying to get her phone number and saying she was “his kind of catch,” among other things.

“I have not heard what options are on the table regarding City Manager Elliott or Mayor Kerr – or if they will be discussing both investigations,” Stevens said of the City Council in his email Monday.

Kerr declined to comment.

Adelanto Mayor Rich Kerr has been accused by an intern of sexual harassment. (File photo by SCNG)

Elliott denies the allegations, which he says were trumped up by Kerr’s allies after he complained about corrupt business practices by Kerr and other councilmembers including handshake deals and quid pro quo shenanigans. Elliott reported the suspected misconduct to the District Attorney’s Office.

The allegations against Kerr and Elliott surfaced in a batch of claims filed with the city in December.

Among Elliott’s complaints was the rush to sell the city’s public works building/emergency operations center on the cheap to a commercial marijuana grower for $700,000. Elliott said the property was appraised for $1 million and could have been sold for three times that. The deal ultimately fell through.

Elliott’s allegations of a rogue City Council that repeatedly violates the city charter and targets employees for termination who don’t play ball echo that of three former employees who have sued the city over the last two years, alleging they were singled out for termination by Kerr, Councilman John “Bug” Woodard and former Councilman Jermaine Wright, who is now facing trial on federal bribery and attempted arson charges.

Wright stands accused of taking a $10,000 bribe from an undercover FBI agent posing as businessman wanting to start a marijuana transportation business in the city. He also stands accused of paying another undercover FBI agent $1,500 to burn down his restaurant, Fat Boyz Grill, in order to collect $300,000 in insurance money, authorities said.

Elliott’s attorney, Tristan Pelayes, a former San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy who served on the Adelanto City Council from 2000-2004, called the accusations against his client a “witch hunt solely designed to oust the (city) manager and of course pursue the agenda of a corrupt mayor and corrupt marijuana industry.”

Pelayes, who served as Mayor of Adelanto in 2003 and was instrumental in disbanding the city’s police department following corruption scandals involving its chief and other officers, said not much has changed since his time on the council.

“Vindictive council people abusing their position, not caring whose lives and careers they ruin as long as they get favors from business and developers. They forget they are here to serve the public,” Pelayes said.

Should the council vote to let Elliott go, it will make Elliott the fifth city manager the city has gone through in the last two years. City Manager Jim Hart was let go after Kerr was elected to the council in November 2014, followed by Thomas Thornton, Cindy Herrera, Michael Milhiser, and then Elliott, who has served in the position since August 2017.

The turnover rate has been comparatively high for city attorneys as well since Kerr was elected. Todd Litfin, the city’s attorney since 2003, left in 2015. He was succeeded by Julia Sylva, followed by Curtis Wright, and then Ruben Duran.

Joe Nelson is an award-winning investigative reporter who has worked for The Sun since November 1999. He started as a crime reporter and went on to cover a variety of beats including courts and the cities of Colton, Highland and Grand Terrace. He has covered San Bernardino County since 2009. Nelson is a graduate of California State University Fullerton. In 2014, he completed a fellowship at Loyola Law School's Journalist Law School program.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.